Packing machine



Dec. 27, 1960 Filed April 13, 1959 J. BACSAK PACKING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 27, 1960 J. BACSAK PACKING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 13, 1959 Dec. 27, 1960 J. BAcsAK 2,966,020

PACKING MACHINE Filed April 13, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 J. BACSAK PACKING MACHINE Dec. 27, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed April 13, 1959 Dec. 27, 1960 J. BAcsAK PACKING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed April 13, 1959 Fig. 7

PACKING MACHINE Josef Bacsalr, Stuttgart-Bad, Germany, assignor to Firma Fr. Hesser, Maschinenfabrik-Aktiengesellschaft, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Apr. 13, 1959, Ser. No. 806,107 Claims priority, application Germany Apr. 22, 1958 Claims. (Cl. 53-128) My invention relates to a machine for packing fragile articles such as incandescent lamps, into box shaped containers of corrugated cardboard or the like. It is a particular object of the invention to provide a machine of this kind which may be directly connected to one, or simultaneously to a plurality of, automatic manufacturing apparatus for incandescent lamps, and which automatically executes the packing of the incandescent lamps ejected from such apparatus.

For this purpose, the machine according to the present invention comprises two supply means preferably arranged in parallel relationship to each other, each of said supply means comprising two endless travelling belts adapted to carry between them the articles to be packed, stationary slide rails forming an extension of said belts, an arcuate sliding chute associated with each pair of said slide ra1ls and arranged at the end thereof in a vertical plane, transverse pusher means engaging in said sliding chute and adapted to be operated in timed relationship with the machine operating cycle, intermittently operable first conveyor means arranged between the opposite adjacent openings of said sliding chutes and adapted to bring folding boxes which have been removed from a stack and opened successively in front of the openings of said sliding chutes where they are filled with the articles, second intermittently operable conveyor means arranged transversely of said first conveyor means and adapted to bring outer casings which have been removed from a stack and opened, in front of the outlet of said first conveyor means, and pusher means swingable parallel to said last named conveyor means and adapted to fill said outer casings successively with said folding boxes containing the articles.

According to a further feature of the present invention, there is provided in front of the folding box filling station a finger swingable in timed relationship with the machine cycle, which finger pushes a tab cut out in the upper side of the opened folding boxes into the folding box, so that the subsequently inserted articles are separated from each other by this tab.

The machine constructed and arranged in this manner is completely automatic in operation, the incandescent lamps or similar fragile articles being nevertheless treated very carefully, also in cases where the supply to the machine is not quite uniform or regular.

The object of the present invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a machine for packing incandescent lamps;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of this machine;

Fig. 3 is another side elevation of the machine showing in particular the supply and feeding means for the outer casings;

Fig. 4 is an elevation showing the supply and feed means for the folding boxes at an enlarged scale;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the incandescent lamp supply and packing means;

States atent Q ice Fig. 6 is a perspective view of another incandescent lamp supply means; and

Fig. 7 is a plan view of another embodiment of the machine according to the present invention.

The machine shown by way of example in Figs. 1 to 6 is adapted to pack four incandescent lamps C into one package which comprises an outer casing A, and two folding boxes B, each of which contains two incandescent lamps, and which are inserted into the outer casing A.

This machine comprises a stack 1 for flattened folding boxes B, and a stack 2 for flattened outer casings A. As may be seen from Figs. 1 and 2, the folding boxes B are removed successively from the stack 1; they are then opened by means of an opening device 3 and fed to the buckets 4 of a conveyor 5, whereupon an incandescent lamp C is inserted from each side into the folding boxes B. Two folding boxes filled in this manner are then inserted successively into an outer casing A which has previously been removed from stack 2, opened by an opening device 7, and fed to a conveyor 8. The package formed in this manner is then transported to the outlet 10 of the machine.

in detail, the machine illustrated in Figs. 1 to 6 is arranged as follows:

The machine is driven by an electric motor 11 (Fig. 1), from which the drive is transmitted through a belt 12 to a transverse shaft 13 on which is secured a worm 14 which through a worm gear 15 drives the main shaft 16 of the machine. Through bevel gearing 17, 1S giving a reduction of 2:1, the main shaft 16 drives an auxiliary shaft 19 which is arranged normal to the main shaft 16 (Fig. 3). The movements of the various devices of the machine are controlled by cams 2128 secured on the main shaft 16, and by cams 31-33 secured on the auxiliary shaft 19.

The intermittent of stepby-step drive of the conveyor 5 (Fig. l) is taken from a cylindrical cam 29 fixed on the main shaft 16, which cam has formed therein a helical groove 41 of irregular pitch into which engage pins 43 fastened on a disk 42. The disk 42 is provided with external teeth which are in mesh with the teeth of a gear 44 connected with a chain sprocket 45. The sprocket 45 cooperates with a chain 46 which in turn drives a sprocket 48 connected with the reversing wheel 47 of conveyor 5.

The folding boxes B are successively pushed out of the stack 1 by dogs 51 secured to a chain 50, in timed relationship with the operating cycle of the machine (Fig. 4). The chain 50 is driven from the second reversing wheel 49 of conveyor 5 through a chain 52. After a folding box B has been removed from the stack 1, a pusher 53 becomes operative which by means of a swinging movement feeds the folding box B completely into the opening device 3 and aids in the opening operation. its feeding movement is controlled by cam 21 of shaft 16 through a linkage 54.

The flat folding box B advanced by the pusher 53 comes between two swinging arms 55, 56 (Fig. 3) arranged one behind the other (Fig. 3). The rear arm 56 is provided with a suction head 59 which is connected with a suitable source of suction and is provided with suction nozzles on the inside of arm 56. The two swinging arms 55, 56 are connected with each other by a linkage 57, and through a further linkage 58 are also connected with cam 23 of shaft 16. In order to hold the folding box B securely during opening, two suction heads 61, 62 (Fig. 2) are fastened in side-by-side relationship on a rod 60 by means of a bracket 63, and grip the upper side of the folding box (Fig. 1) by means of suction. The opening of the folding box B is effected in such a manner that the two swinging arms 55, 56, which are at first in a horizontal position are swung through 90 by the cam 23 through the intermediary of linkage 58, whilst the suction heads 61, 62 and the suction head 59 retain the front and upper side of the folding box B. Following this, the opened box B is fed into a bucket 4 of the conveyor to which end a downward movement is imparted to the rod 60 by the cam 25 (Fig. 1), whereupon the vacuum is cut ofi from the suction heads 61, 62. Simultaneously with the return movement of the suction heads 61, 62 and of the arms 55, 56 into their original position, the conveyor 5 is advanced one step, or indexed.

In order to prevent direct contact of the incandescent lamp C during the subsequent filling of the folding boxes B, a tab F cut out in the upper side of the folding box B is pushed into the latter on the following station of the machine (Fig. 5). This pushing-in is accomplished by means of a finger 65 which is secured to a shaft 66, and is connected with cam 24 of shaft 16 by means of a linkage 67, 68.

After another indexing step of the conveyor 5 the folding box B prepared in such manner for the filling operation, arrives at the filling station where it is simultaneously filled with two incandescent lamps C in such a manner that the sockets of the lamps are situated adjacent one another in the middle of the folding box B. The supply of lamps C which may, for example, come from automatic machines for manufacturing incandescent lamps, to the filling station is accomplished by means of two continuously driven endless V-belts 70 and slide rails 72 which are arranged directly contiguous to said V-belts and form a continuation thereof (Fig. 5). The slide rails 72 lead to two arcuate sliding chutes 73 which are arranged in face-to-face relationship and are defined by side walls 74. Above the sliding chutes 73, the slide rails 72 are provided with arcuate recesses 83 through which the incandescent lamps C pass into the sliding chutes 73 (Fig. 6). In order to assure that only one lamp C at a time may arrive over these recesses 83 and may thus fall into chute 73, a pin 75 (Figs. 2 and 5) projects through each of the side walls 74 of the sliding chutes 73 at the height of the greatest diameter of the incandescent lamps C suspended on the slide rails 72, and in the middle between the latter, which pin retains the lamps C. The pins 75 are secured to levers 76 which are fixed on a shaft 77 (Fig. 1). Also fixed on the shaft 77 is a lever 78 which with its lower extremity engages cam 27 of shaft 16. Arms 79 pivotably supported i at 81 and provided with a wedge 82 at their free end, are articulated to the upper ends of levers 76 by means of links 80. After a bucket 4 of the conveyor 5 has brought a folding box B between the inner openings of the sliding chutes 73, the levers 76 are swung back by the cam 27 of shaft 16, whereby the pins 75 are withdrawn from the chutes 73. By this movement the arms 79 are lowered simultaneously so that the wedges 82 penetrate between the foremost and the next following of the incandescent lamps C situated on the slide rails 72. Thereby, the foremost of the lamps C come to be situated above the recesses 83 and fall into the sliding chutes 73. Following this, transverse pushers 84 penetrate into the chutes 73 and push the two lamps C completely into the prepared folding box B. The control of these pushers 84 is effected from the cam 26 of shaft 16 through a linkage 85' connected with an arm 86 which in turn is drivingly connected by means of gear teeth with another symmetrically arranged arm 87. The pushers 84 are connected with these two pivotally mounted arms 86, 87 by means of links 88 (Fig. 5

The filling device described in the foregoing is provided with safety means which switch oi? the machine when the supply of lamps is lacking or when a lamp breaks. For the purpose of determining whether incandescent lamps C are available on the slide rails 72 for filling into the folding boxes B, feeler pins 90 (Figs. 1, 2 and 5) are arranged in axial bores of the pins 75 which retain the lamps C. In their non-depressed position these feeler pins project beyond the front end" of the retainer pins 75 and are operatively connected with a switch 91 at their rear end. If one or both of these pins are not forced back into the bolts 75 by the lamps C at a given time and the corresponding switch 91 is thus not operated, the circuit of the driving motor 11 is interrupted until new incandescent lamps C are again supplied by the supply means.

Furthermore, the driving motor 11 is stopped by switch 92 (Fig. 1) when a pusher 84 becomes jammed in a chute 73 due to breakage of an incandescent lamp C so that the linkage 83 cannot execute its full travel, and consequently does not operate a control contact in switch 92.

The feeding of lamps C into the sliding chutes 73 is interrupted when there is no folding box B ready for filling. This is sensed by a feeler 93 (Figs. 1 and 5) which is arranged between the two sliding chutes 73. If no folding box B is present, this feeler93 through a linkage 95 and a ratchet device 94 blocks the return movement of the levers 76, so that no lamps C can enter the chutes 7 3.

After further indexing steps of the conveyor 5 the filled folding boxes B are lifted from the buckets 4 of conveyor 5 by a vertical pusher 97, and successively inserted into waiting outer casings A by the pusher 6 (Figs. 1, 2 and 5). The vertical pusher 97'is controlled by cam 28 of shaft 16 through a lever 98. The pusher 6 receives its inserting or loading movement from the cam 22 of shaft 16 through a bell-crank linkage 99 connected to a vertical shaft 100 to which the pusher 6 is articulated by means of an arm 101 and a link 102.

As may be seen from Fig. 3 the outer casings A are treated by devices presenting a construction corresponding to that of the devices for the folding boxes B, but dimensions which are adapted to the outer casings A, i.e. supply means 110, a pusher 111, opening means 7, and a conveyor 8 which is driven from an auxiliary shaft 19 through gearing 112 of a construction similar to that of the gearing which drives conveyor 5, moves one step for every two steps of conveyor 5 due to the reduction provided by bevel gearing 17, 18.

In order to assure that only complete packages filled with two folding boxes B arrive at the outlet 10 of the machine, an ejector device for incompletely filled outer casings A is provided. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, this ejector device comprises a slider 115 which by means of a linkage 116 is connected with the armature of an electro-magnet 117. The magnet 117 is energized with delayed action when an outer casing A has been filled with only one folding box B. This is sensed by a feeler 118 which is situated at the filling station for the outer casings and operates a switch 119.

For the filling of incandescent lamps C into folding boxes adapted to receive two lamps which are arranged side by side and are separated by an intermediate wall (tab F), the chutes 73 are arranged in offset relationshsip to each other as shown in Fig. 6, whereas otherwise the arrangement of the machine remains as illustrated.

It is also possible to pack only one folding box. into a corresponding outer casing. For this purpose it is only necessary to set the ratio of the bevel gears 17, 18 at 1:1.

For the packing of a single lamp into a corresponding folding box B and outer casing A the retaining bolts 75 and the transverse pushers 84 of the individual sliding chutes 73 are operated in alternate sequence so that the filling of the folding boxes is accomplished once from the left and once from the right.

According to the embodiment shown in Fig. 7, the machine may also be constructed in such a manner that one folding box B is inserted into the outer casing A from each side. For this purpose there is provided opposite the stack 1 for folding boxes B shown in Fig. 2

(but not shown in Fig. 7) and on the other side of the conveyor 8 for the outer casings A, a second stack for folding boxes (also not shown). The arrangement and construction of these stacks, the means for opening and filling the folding boxes B, and the means for feeding the incandescent lamps C correspond exactly to the arrangement and construction of the apparatus shown in Fig. 2. In correspondence with the embodiment shown in Fig. 2, there are provided according to Fig. 7 at both sides of the two feeding paths for the folding boxes from the two stacks (not shown in the drawings), feeding means 70 for the incandescent lamps C, sliding shafts 73, pins 75, levers 76, feeler pins 90, and a pusher 6 reciprocable by means of an arm 101 supported at 100 and an articulation. The outer casings A are fed from the stack 2 by the conveyor 8 in a manner similar to that shown in and described with reference to Figs. 1 to 6. Filled folding boxes B are then introduced simultaneously from both sides into the outer casing A. The drive means for the movable parts of the machine are constructed in the same manner as in the machine according to Figs. 1 to 6. In the embodiment according to Fig. 7 the machine may be simultaneously connected to four machines for manufacturing incandescent lamps, whereby its capacity is further improved to a considerable extent.

What I claim is:

l. A machine of the type specified, comprising two supply means arranged in parallel relationshsip to each other, each of said supply means comprising two endless travelling belts adapted to carry between them the articles to be packed, a pair of slide rails in continuation of each of said supply means, an arcuate sliding chute associated with each of said pairs of slide rails and arranged at the end of said rails in a vertical plane, transverse pusher means adapted to penetrate into the outer end of each of said sliding chutes and operable in timed relationship with the operating cycle of the machine, means for removing folding boxes from a stack and means for opening said folding boxes, first intermittently operable conveyor means arranged between the oppositely adjacent openings of said two sliding chutes and adapted to feed opened folding boxes successively in front of the openings of said sliding chutes, means for removing outer casings from a stack and means for opening said outer casings, second intermittently operable conveyor means arranged transversely of said first conveyor means and adapted to feed the opened outer casings in front of the outlet of said first conveyor means, and longitudinal pusher means oscillable in a direction parallel to said first conveyor means and adapted to insert the folding boxes containing the articles to be packed, successively into the outer casings.

2. The machine as specified in claim 1, in which means are provided for controlling said transverse pusher means and said longitudinal pusher means in such a manner that by each of said transverse pusher means one article is inserted into a folding box during each operating cycle of the machine, and two folding boxes are successively inserted into an outer casing by said longitudinal pusher means.

3. The machine as specified in claim 1, in which means are provided adapted to control said transverse pusher means and said longitudinal pusher means in such a manner that only one article is alternately inserted from said two sliding chutes into a folding box, and that only one folding box is inserted into an outer casing by said longitudinal pusher means.

4. The machine as specified in claim 1, in which said supply means for feeding the articles and said sliding chutes, as well as said stacks and means for, removing, opening and feeding the folding boxes are provided in duplicate and are so arranged that said conveyor means for the outer casings constitutes the axis of symmetry for the two sets of the said means.

5. The machine as specified in claim 1, in which an oscillable member is arranged in front of the station for filling the folding boxes and over said conveyor means for the folding boxes, said oscillable member being adapted to push a tab provided on the upper side of the folding box into the opened folding box.

No references cited. 

